2008–2015
Digital storefronts & indie
Distribution changes who can originate a mechanic, and the origins in this period reflect it. Minecraft accounts for four entries — Editable Voxel Terrain, Free-Form Base Building, Infinite Chunked World, and Paid Early Access Development — from a team that started at one person. Rogue Legacy's Run-Persistent Meta-Progression is the compromise that made roguelikes mass-market by letting the player keep something after losing the run. BeamNG.drive spends everything on Soft-Body Deformation. Meanwhile the largest studios are re-engineering the business model in public: Team Fortress 2's Randomized Loot Box, League of Legends' Cosmetic-Only Monetization, L.A. Noire's Season Pass Bundle, Candy Crush Saga's mobile free-to-play, Dota 2's Seasonal Battle Pass, and Destiny's Live-Service Seasonal Content, which turns the game into a calendar. FromSoftware's contributions bracket the period — Demon's Souls with Stamina Action Economy and Poise and Stagger Break, Dark Souls with Bonfire Checkpoint & Currency Risk — and Left 4 Dead's Dynamic AI Director makes pacing itself a system.
Mechanics introduced in this era
Interface & Meta · 2008
Diegetic HUD-less Interface
Diegetic interfaces delete the overlay and place health, ammunition and inventory on objects inside the fiction, so in…
Origin: Dead Space
World Systems · 2008
Dynamic AI Director
A dynamic AI director watches how a session is going and spawns enemies, items and quiet stretches accordingly, shapin…
Origin: Left 4 Dead
Space & Locomotion · 2008
First-Person Parkour Flow
First-person parkour flow makes running, vaulting and wall-running the central verbs of a game seen from inside the bo…
Origin: Mirror's Edge
Creation & Modding · 2008
In-Game Creation Suite
In-game creation suites place the authoring tools inside the game world itself, so players build levels and objects wi…
Origin: LittleBigPlanet
Physics & Simulation · 2008
Propagating Fire and Fluids
Propagating fire and fluids spread through a world according to wind, fuel and terrain, producing hazards that keep de…
Origin: Far Cry 2
Multiplayer & Social · 2009
Asynchronous Invasion & Messages
Asynchronous invasion and messaging lets players leave written signs, replay ghosts and death marks in each other's wo…
Origin: Demon's Souls
Economy & Business Model · 2009
Cosmetic-Only Monetization
Cosmetic-only monetisation restricts everything sold to appearance, keeping competitive power out of the store, so spe…
Origin: League of Legends
Physics & Simulation · 2009
Editable Voxel Terrain
Editable voxel terrain models the world as a uniform grid of blocks that can each be removed or placed, making landsca…
Origin: Minecraft
World Systems · 2009
Free-Form Base Building
Free-form base building lets players raise permanent structures of their own design inside the play space, turning a l…
Origin: Minecraft
Procedural Generation · 2009
Infinite Chunked World
An infinite chunked world generates terrain in fixed blocks as the player approaches, loading and unloading them conti…
Origin: Minecraft
Economy & Business Model · 2009
Paid Early Access Development
Paid early access sells an unfinished game to players who fund and test it, with development continuing in public and …
Origin: Minecraft
Combat & Conflict · 2009
Poise and Stagger Break
Poise and stagger break give characters a second, hidden bar that absorbs the impact of blows, and emptying it leaves …
Origin: Demon's Souls
Combat & Conflict · 2009
Stamina Action Economy
A stamina action economy draws every attack, dodge, sprint and block from one shared bar that refills slowly, so commi…
Origin: Demon's Souls
Economy & Business Model · 2010
Randomized Loot Box
Randomised loot boxes sell a sealed container whose contents are drawn from a weighted table, so the purchase buys a c…
Origin: Team Fortress 2
Progression & Persistence · 2011
Bonfire Checkpoint & Currency Risk
Bonfire checkpoints restore supplies and respawn every enemy when used, while death drops the player's accumulated cur…
Origin: Dark Souls
Economy & Business Model · 2011
Season Pass Bundle
A season pass sells future downloadable content before it exists, bundling an unspecified schedule of additions into o…
Origin: L.A. Noire
Economy & Business Model · 2012
Mobile Free-to-Play
Mobile free-to-play designs around short, interruptible sessions, using energy timers, level maps and in-app purchases…
Origin: Candy Crush Saga
Progression & Persistence · 2013
Run-Persistent Meta-Progression
Run-persistent meta-progression lets a failed run leave something permanent behind, so a roguelike's deletion of the c…
Origin: Rogue Legacy
Economy & Business Model · 2013
Seasonal Battle Pass
A seasonal battle pass sells a fixed progression track for a limited period, releasing known cosmetic rewards as the b…
Origin: Dota 2
Physics & Simulation · 2013
Soft-Body Deformation
Soft-body deformation simulates a structure as a flexible network of connected nodes, so an object bends, crumples and…
Origin: BeamNG.drive
Economy & Business Model · 2014
Live-Service Seasonal Content
Live-service seasonal content organises a game as a calendar, with story, activities, rewards and economy arriving in …
Origin: Destiny
World Systems · 2014
Procedural Nemesis Hierarchy
A procedural nemesis hierarchy generates individual enemy commanders who remember past encounters, gain rank when they…
Origin: Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor
Games of the period (139)
Braid 2008Call of Duty: World at War 2008Dead Space 2008Fallout 3 2008Far Cry 2 2008Gears of War 2 2008Grand Theft Auto IV 2008Left 4 Dead 2008LittleBigPlanet 2008Mario Kart Wii 2008Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots 2008Mirror's Edge 2008Monster Hunter Freedom Unite 2008Persona 4 2008Rhythm Heaven 2008Saints Row 2 2008Spelunky 2008Super Smash Bros. Brawl 2008Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle-Cars 2008World of Goo 2008Angry Birds 2009ARMA 2 2009Assassin's Creed II 2009Batman: Arkham Asylum 2009Bayonetta 2009Borderlands 2009Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 2009Demon's Souls 2009DJ Hero 2009Dragon Age: Origins 2009Final Fantasy XIII 2009Flower 2009Halo 3: ODST 2009inFAMOUS 2009Infiniminer 2009Just Dance 2009Killzone 2 2009League of Legends 2009Left 4 Dead 2 2009Minecraft 2009Prototype 2009Resident Evil 5 2009Uncharted 2: Among Thieves 2009Amnesia: The Dark Descent 2010Battlefield: Bad Company 2 2010Call of Duty: Black Ops 2010Dance Central 2010Fallout: New Vegas 2010God of War III 2010Halo: Reach 2010Just Cause 2 2010Kinect Adventures! 2010Limbo 2010Mass Effect 2 2010Metro 2033 2010NieR 2010Pokemon Black and White 2010Red Dead Redemption 2010Super Mario Galaxy 2 2010Super Meat Boy 2010VVVVVV 2010World of Tanks 2010Xenoblade Chronicles 2010Bastion 2011Batman: Arkham City 2011Battlefield 3 2011Dark Souls 2011Dead Space 2 2011Deus Ex: Human Revolution 2011Kerbal Space Program 2011L.A. Noire 2011Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch 2011Portal 2 2011Saints Row: The Third 2011Temple Run 2011Terraria 2011The Binding of Isaac 2011The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim 2011The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword 2011The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings 2011Animal Crossing: New Leaf 2012Borderlands 2 2012Candy Crush Saga 2012Clash of Clans 2012DayZ 2012Dear Esther 2012Dishonored 2012Dragon's Dogma 2012Far Cry 3 2012Fez 2012Fire Emblem: Awakening 2012FTL: Faster Than Light 2012Halo 4 2012Hotline Miami 2012Journey 2012Mass Effect 3 2012PlanetSide 2 2012Prison Architect 2012Sleeping Dogs 2012Slender: The Eight Pages 2012Thomas Was Alone 2012Antichamber 2013Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag 2013BeamNG.drive 2013BioShock Infinite 2013Don't Starve 2013Dota 2 2013Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn 2013Flappy Bird 2013Gone Home 2013Grand Theft Auto V 2013Ingress 2013Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance 2013Monster Hunter 4 2013Outlast 2013Papers, Please 2013Risk of Rain 2013Rogue Legacy 2013Rust 2013Super Mario 3D World 2013The Last of Us 2013The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds 2013The Stanley Parable 2013Warframe 2013Alien: Isolation 2014Banished 2014Dark Souls II 2014Destiny 2014Hearthstone 2014Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor 2014Monument Valley 2014Shovel Knight 2014Smite 2014Thief 2014This War of Mine 2014Threes! 2014Titanfall 2014Transistor 2014Watch Dogs 2014
Studios founded (62)
11 bit studios3909 LLCActivision BlizzardArrowhead Game StudiosBattlestate GamesBeamNG GmbHBloober TeamBrace Yourself GamesCampo SantoCellar Door GamesChucklefishCoffee Stain StudiosColossal OrderCompulsion GamesConcernedApeDennaton GamesDevolver DigitalEmbracer GroupFreehold GamesGiant SparrowGood Science StudioGunfire GamesHello GamesHopoo GamesHouse HouseHoYoverseImangi StudiosKitfox GamesKoei TecmoLudeon StudiosMachineGamesMobius DigitalMojangMoon StudiosNianticPlayground GamesPolytron CorporationRe-LogicRed BarrelsRespawn EntertainmentRunic GamesShining Rock SoftwareSirvoSledgehammer GamesSquadStudio MDHRSubset GamesSupercellSupergiant GamesSuperhot TeamTango GameworksTeam CherryTeam MeatThe Fullbright CompanyThe Game KitchenThekla, Inc.THQ NordictinyBuildTrapdoorWube SoftwareYacht Club GamesZachtronics